+Dictators Threaten World Peace Key Idea: The rise of rulers with total power in Eyrope and Asia led to World War II. Why it Matters Now: Dictators of the 1930's and 1940's changed the course of history, making world leaders especially watchful for the actions of dictators today.
Reactions to a Troubled World
-The day after Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of office the Nazi Reichstag gave Adolf Hitler absolute control of Germany. Hitler had campaigned spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric and vowing to rebuild a strong Germany.
-During the week prior to FDR's inauguration, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations for the condemnation of Japanese aggressions in China. Fascism and militarism were spreading across Europe and East Asia. Meanwhile Americans were not bracing themselves for the coming war; they were determined to avoid it at all costs.
-The first act of European aggression was not committed by Nazi Germany. Fascist dictator BenitoMussolini ordered the Italian army to invade Ethiopia in 1935. The League of Nations refused to act, despite the desperate pleas from Ethiopia's leader Haile Selassie.
-The following year Hitler and Mussolini formed the Rome-Berlin Axis, an alliance so named because its leaders believed that the line that connected the two capitals would be the axis around which the entire world would revolve. Later in 1936, Hitler marched troops into the Rhineland of Germany, directly breaching the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed after World War I. A few months later, --Fascist General Francisco Franco launched an attempt to overthrow the established Loyalist government of Spain. Franco received generous support from Hitler and Mussolini.
Pablo Picasso's mural "Guernica" (1937)
Pablo Picasso created this mural for display in the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair. Entitled "Guernica," it depicts the slaughter of over 1,600 Spanish civilians by fascist forces.
-While Fascist aggressors were chalking up victories across Europe, America, Britain, and France sat on the sidelines. The desire to avoid repeating the mistakes of World War I was so strong, no government was willing to confront the dictators. Economic sanctions were unpopular during the height of the Great Depression. The Loyalists in Spain were already receiving aid from the Soviet Union; therefore, public opinion was against assisting Moscow in its "private" war against fascism. As the specter of dictatorship spread across Europe, the West feebly objected with light rebukes and economic penalties with no teeth.
-The United States Congress and President Roosevelt passed three important laws — all called Neutrality Acts — directly aimed at reversing the mistakes made that led to the American entry into the First World War.
-The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited the shipping of arms to nations at war, including the victims of aggressions. This would reduce the possibility of maritime attacks on American vessels. A Senate Committee led by Gerald Nye had conducted extensive research on US activities prior to World War I concluded that trade and international finance had been the leading cause of American entry.
Sinking of the Lusitania
The Neutrality Act of 1936 was designed to keep American citizens out of peril by forbidding them to travel on the ships of warring nations. More than 100 Americans were killed when a German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania in 1915.
-The Neutrality Act of 1936 renewed the law of the previous year with the additional restrictions — no loans could be made to belligerent nations. Nor were any Americans permitted to travel on the ships of nations at war. There would be no more Lusitania incidents. -A Neutrality Act of 1937 limited the trade of even non-munitions to belligerent nations to a "cash and carry basis." This meant that the nation in question would have to use its ships to transport goods to avoid American entanglements on the high seas. Isolationists in Congress felt reasonably confident that these measures would keep the United States out of another war.
But as the decade passed, President Roosevelt was growing increasingly skeptical.
**The Tragedy of the S.S. //St. Louis//**
With persecution on the rise, many Jews attempted to flee Germany in the late 1930s. Read the story of the S.S. St. Louis, a passenger ship loaded with fleeing German Jews. Turned away by both Cuba and the United States, the ship was forced to return to Europe. Many of the European nations that accepted refugees soon fell under Nazi control. A harrowing tale, complete with images of the ship and its passengers.
**The Rise of Hitler**
The History Place presents 24 chapters on Adolf Hitler, from his birth and childhood to his 1933 takeover of constitutional powers in Germany. Great attention is paid to his younger days, a time when his teachers called him "lazy" and his friends knew him as "violent and high strung." Engaging details and quality images await you.
**Haile Selassie: Appeal To The League Of Nations**
Read the text of Emperor Haile Selassie's plea to the League of Nations after Ethiopia had been invaded by Italy in 1935. Selassie gives a firsthand account of the methods used by Italy, including the "fine, death-dealing rain" of chemical warfare. Keep in mind that the League of Nations chose to do nothing in response to this address.
**Fascism: Benito Mussolini**
The Modern History Sourcebook offers a description of fascism authored by Benito Mussolini in 1932. From the definition: "Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society."
**Backing Into War**
This paper from the Institute for National Strategic Studies focuses on the evolution of American foreign policy in the late 1930s, from neutrality to war. Text-only, but a great tool in helping you see the United States' gradual shift from isolation to the realization that involvement was vital to survival.
**Neutrality Act of 1937**
Building on the Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1936, the 1937 edition was the most isolationist document the U.S. government had approved to that date. Read the document and see the United States' failed attempt to avoid war by denying the right of U.S. ships to transport goods to "belligerent nations."
Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society. -Benito Mussolini Learn More...
In his youth, Hitler most wanted to be an artist. Check out what happened to his career plans. Learn More...
German troops parade through Warsaw in September 1939 following their invasion of Poland. Britain and France responded to this action with declarations of war against Germany. World War II was officially underway.
-On July 7, 1937, a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops broke out at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. The cause of the fracas is unknown, but the Japanese government used it as a pretext to launch a full-scale invasion of China. Hoping to deliver a quick knockout punch, the Japanese furiously bombed Chinese cities and advanced with their better-equipped army. Despite enduring heavy losses, the Chinese regrouped in the interior of their vast land and mounted an entrenched resistance.
R-eports of the "rape of Nanking," the sacking of the Chinese capital reached the American mainland in the summer of 1937. The brutalities prompted President Roosevelt to abandon cooperation with Congressional isolationists to pursue a more forceful approach against the Japanese.
Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler
The Munich Pact of 1938 recognized Germany's claim to the Sudetenland and Italy's claim to Ethiopia in exchange for the promise of no further aggressions. This memorial sheet depicts Neville Chamberlain and Eduardo Daladier, the leaders of Britain and France, standing opposite Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
-In October 1937, he delivered his famous Quarantine Speech in Chicago. For the first time, Roosevelt advocated collective action to stop the epidemic aggression. But his hopes of igniting American sensibilities failed. Even when a Japanese plane bombed the USS Panay on December 12, there was no cry for a response. The Panay had been stationed in China on the Yangtze River. Japan apologized and paid an indemnity and the incident was soon forgotten, despite the loss of three American lives. Compared to the public response to the sinking of the Maine in 1898, the American people hardly mustered a whisper.
-Emboldened by western inaction, Hitler's troops marched into Austria in 1938 and annexed the country. Then Hitler set his eyes upon the Sudetenland, a region in western Czechoslovakia inhabited by 3.5 million Germans. In September the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy met in Munich attempting to diffuse a precarious situation.
-Britain and France recognized Hitler's claim to the Sudetenland and Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia in exchange for the promise of no future aggressions. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to Great Britain triumphantly proclaiming that he had achieved "peace in our time." It would be one of the most mocked statements of the 20th century.
Map of Sudetenland
This map of Czechoslovakia shows the fierce land-grabbing that took place in the Fall of 1938. Hungary, Germany, and Poland all managed to claim a piece as their own.
European appeasement failed six months later, as Hitler mockingly marched his troops into the rest of Czechoslovakia.
-In May 1939, Roosevelt urged Congressional leaders to repeal the arms embargo of the earlier Neutrality Acts. Senators from both parties refused the request. Another bombshell crossed the Atlantic on August 24. Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin agreed to put their mutual hatred aside. Germany and the Soviet Union signed a ten-year nonaggression pact. Hitler was now free to seize the territory Germany had lost to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. On September 1, 1939, Nazi troops crossed into Poland from the west.
-Finally, on September 3, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. World War II had begun. **Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall**
The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, built during the 1980s in Jiangdongmen, China, is the final resting place of victims of the Nanking Massacre of 1937. This virtual Memorial Hall is a tribute to the many victims. Warning: graphic pictures and text underscore the brutality.
**Roosevelt's "Quarantine the Aggressor" Speech**
Likening the international situation to an infection, FDR called for a quarantine of the illness in this 1937 address. Roosevelt spoke of a spreading "epidemic of world lawlessness" that, like a disease, must be quarantined to prevent others in the world community from being infected. Read the entire text of the speech at this Texas A&M website.
**Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941**
The Avalon Project at Yale Law provides several documents seized from the German Foreign Office in 1945. Read the correspondence that charts the evolution of diplomacy between Germany and the Soviet Union, culminating in their non-aggression treaty of 1939. "I believe I may say to you, Duce, that through the negotiations with Soviet Russia a completely new situation in world politics has been produced." -Adolf Hitler to Benito Mussolini, 1939.
**The Sudetenland**
Control of the Sudetenland had long been a point of contention between Germany and Czechoslovakia. Although the region's inhabitants were mostly German-speaking, treaties had granted possession of the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia — until the Munich Agreement of 1938. This website offers background on the predicament of the Sudetenland and offers links to maps, photos, personal accounts and more on the Munich Agreement.
**Primary Documents: United Kingdom**
When British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain left the Munich Conference in September 1938, he believed he had scored a victory in his negotiations with Hitler and Mussolini. Stepping from the plane on his return to England, he waved the printed statement he would later make public. Read the text here, at the Brigham Young University website on British primary documents.
**War and Crises in Europe and Asia: 1937-40**
For an in-depth account of war and aggression in Asia and Europe between 1937 and 1940, open this online book to Chapter 21. Heavy on detail and strategy, and very light on commentary. Follow inline links to maps of the locations mentioned in the text.
I believe it is peace for our time ... Go home and get a nice quiet sleep. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain claimed a diplomatic victory after meeting with Hitler and Mussolini in 1938. Learn More...
In a secret addendum to the Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on how they would divvy up Eastern Europe. Learn More...
+Dictators Threaten World Peace
Key Idea: The rise of rulers with total power in Eyrope and Asia led to World War II.
Why it Matters Now: Dictators of the 1930's and 1940's changed the course of history, making world leaders especially watchful for the actions of dictators today.
Reactions to a Troubled World
-The day after Franklin Roosevelt took the oath of office the Nazi Reichstag gave Adolf Hitler absolute control of Germany. Hitler had campaigned spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric and vowing to rebuild a strong Germany.
-During the week prior to FDR's inauguration, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations for the condemnation of Japanese aggressions in China. Fascism and militarism were spreading across Europe and East Asia. Meanwhile Americans were not bracing themselves for the coming war; they were determined to avoid it at all costs.
-The first act of European aggression was not committed by Nazi Germany. Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini ordered the Italian army to invade Ethiopia in 1935. The League of Nations refused to act, despite the desperate pleas from Ethiopia's leader Haile Selassie.
-The following year Hitler and Mussolini formed the Rome-Berlin Axis, an alliance so named because its leaders believed that the line that connected the two capitals would be the axis around which the entire world would revolve. Later in 1936, Hitler marched troops into the Rhineland of Germany, directly breaching the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed after World War I. A few months later, --Fascist General Francisco Franco launched an attempt to overthrow the established Loyalist government of Spain. Franco received generous support from Hitler and Mussolini.
Pablo Picasso created this mural for display in the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair. Entitled "Guernica," it depicts the slaughter of over 1,600 Spanish civilians by fascist forces.
-While Fascist aggressors were chalking up victories across Europe, America, Britain, and France sat on the sidelines. The desire to avoid repeating the mistakes of World War I was so strong, no government was willing to confront the dictators. Economic sanctions were unpopular during the height of the Great Depression. The Loyalists in Spain were already receiving aid from the Soviet Union; therefore, public opinion was against assisting Moscow in its "private" war against fascism. As the specter of dictatorship spread across Europe, the West feebly objected with light rebukes and economic penalties with no teeth.
-The United States Congress and President Roosevelt passed three important laws — all called Neutrality Acts — directly aimed at reversing the mistakes made that led to the American entry into the First World War.
-The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited the shipping of arms to nations at war, including the victims of aggressions. This would reduce the possibility of maritime attacks on American vessels. A Senate Committee led by Gerald Nye had conducted extensive research on US activities prior to World War I concluded that trade and international finance had been the leading cause of American entry.
The Neutrality Act of 1936 was designed to keep American citizens out of peril by forbidding them to travel on the ships of warring nations. More than 100 Americans were killed when a German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania in 1915.
-The Neutrality Act of 1936 renewed the law of the previous year with the additional restrictions — no loans could be made to belligerent nations. Nor were any Americans permitted to travel on the ships of nations at war. There would be no more Lusitania incidents.
-A Neutrality Act of 1937 limited the trade of even non-munitions to belligerent nations to a "cash and carry basis." This meant that the nation in question would have to use its ships to transport goods to avoid American entanglements on the high seas. Isolationists in Congress felt reasonably confident that these measures would keep the United States out of another war.
But as the decade passed, President Roosevelt was growing increasingly skeptical.
**The Tragedy of the S.S. //St. Louis//**
With persecution on the rise, many Jews attempted to flee Germany in the late 1930s. Read the story of the S.S. St. Louis, a passenger ship loaded with fleeing German Jews. Turned away by both Cuba and the United States, the ship was forced to return to Europe. Many of the European nations that accepted refugees soon fell under Nazi control. A harrowing tale, complete with images of the ship and its passengers.
**The Rise of Hitler**
The History Place presents 24 chapters on Adolf Hitler, from his birth and childhood to his 1933 takeover of constitutional powers in Germany. Great attention is paid to his younger days, a time when his teachers called him "lazy" and his friends knew him as "violent and high strung." Engaging details and quality images await you.
**Haile Selassie: Appeal To The League Of Nations**
Read the text of Emperor Haile Selassie's plea to the League of Nations after Ethiopia had been invaded by Italy in 1935. Selassie gives a firsthand account of the methods used by Italy, including the "fine, death-dealing rain" of chemical warfare. Keep in mind that the League of Nations chose to do nothing in response to this address.
**Fascism: Benito Mussolini**
The Modern History Sourcebook offers a description of fascism authored by Benito Mussolini in 1932. From the definition: "Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society."
**Backing Into War**
This paper from the Institute for National Strategic Studies focuses on the evolution of American foreign policy in the late 1930s, from neutrality to war. Text-only, but a great tool in helping you see the United States' gradual shift from isolation to the realization that involvement was vital to survival.
**Neutrality Act of 1937**
Building on the Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1936, the 1937 edition was the most isolationist document the U.S. government had approved to that date. Read the document and see the United States' failed attempt to avoid war by denying the right of U.S. ships to transport goods to "belligerent nations."
Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society. -Benito Mussolini
Learn More...
In his youth, Hitler most wanted to be an artist. Check out what happened to his career plans.
Learn More...
Copyright ©2008-2009 ushistory.org, owned by the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia, founded 1942.
War Breaks Out
German troops parade through Warsaw in September 1939 following their invasion of Poland. Britain and France responded to this action with declarations of war against Germany. World War II was officially underway.
-On July 7, 1937, a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops broke out at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. The cause of the fracas is unknown, but the Japanese government used it as a pretext to launch a full-scale invasion of China. Hoping to deliver a quick knockout punch, the Japanese furiously bombed Chinese cities and advanced with their better-equipped army. Despite enduring heavy losses, the Chinese regrouped in the interior of their vast land and mounted an entrenched resistance.
R-eports of the "rape of Nanking," the sacking of the Chinese capital reached the American mainland in the summer of 1937. The brutalities prompted President Roosevelt to abandon cooperation with Congressional isolationists to pursue a more forceful approach against the Japanese.
The Munich Pact of 1938 recognized Germany's claim to the Sudetenland and Italy's claim to Ethiopia in exchange for the promise of no further aggressions. This memorial sheet depicts Neville Chamberlain and Eduardo Daladier, the leaders of Britain and France, standing opposite Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
-In October 1937, he delivered his famous Quarantine Speech in Chicago. For the first time, Roosevelt advocated collective action to stop the epidemic aggression. But his hopes of igniting American sensibilities failed. Even when a Japanese plane bombed the USS Panay on December 12, there was no cry for a response. The Panay had been stationed in China on the Yangtze River. Japan apologized and paid an indemnity and the incident was soon forgotten, despite the loss of three American lives. Compared to the public response to the sinking of the Maine in 1898, the American people hardly mustered a whisper.
-Emboldened by western inaction, Hitler's troops marched into Austria in 1938 and annexed the country. Then Hitler set his eyes upon the Sudetenland, a region in western Czechoslovakia inhabited by 3.5 million Germans. In September the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy met in Munich attempting to diffuse a precarious situation.
-Britain and France recognized Hitler's claim to the Sudetenland and Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia in exchange for the promise of no future aggressions. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to Great Britain triumphantly proclaiming that he had achieved "peace in our time." It would be one of the most mocked statements of the 20th century.
This map of Czechoslovakia shows the fierce land-grabbing that took place in the Fall of 1938. Hungary, Germany, and Poland all managed to claim a piece as their own.
European appeasement failed six months later, as Hitler mockingly marched his troops into the rest of Czechoslovakia.
-In May 1939, Roosevelt urged Congressional leaders to repeal the arms embargo of the earlier Neutrality Acts. Senators from both parties refused the request. Another bombshell crossed the Atlantic on August 24. Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin agreed to put their mutual hatred aside. Germany and the Soviet Union signed a ten-year nonaggression pact. Hitler was now free to seize the territory Germany had lost to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. On September 1, 1939, Nazi troops crossed into Poland from the west.
-Finally, on September 3, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. World War II had begun.
**Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall**
The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, built during the 1980s in Jiangdongmen, China, is the final resting place of victims of the Nanking Massacre of 1937. This virtual Memorial Hall is a tribute to the many victims. Warning: graphic pictures and text underscore the brutality.
**Roosevelt's "Quarantine the Aggressor" Speech**
Likening the international situation to an infection, FDR called for a quarantine of the illness in this 1937 address. Roosevelt spoke of a spreading "epidemic of world lawlessness" that, like a disease, must be quarantined to prevent others in the world community from being infected. Read the entire text of the speech at this Texas A&M website.
**Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941**
The Avalon Project at Yale Law provides several documents seized from the German Foreign Office in 1945. Read the correspondence that charts the evolution of diplomacy between Germany and the Soviet Union, culminating in their non-aggression treaty of 1939. "I believe I may say to you, Duce, that through the negotiations with Soviet Russia a completely new situation in world politics has been produced." -Adolf Hitler to Benito Mussolini, 1939.
**The Sudetenland**
Control of the Sudetenland had long been a point of contention between Germany and Czechoslovakia. Although the region's inhabitants were mostly German-speaking, treaties had granted possession of the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia — until the Munich Agreement of 1938. This website offers background on the predicament of the Sudetenland and offers links to maps, photos, personal accounts and more on the Munich Agreement.
**Primary Documents: United Kingdom**
When British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain left the Munich Conference in September 1938, he believed he had scored a victory in his negotiations with Hitler and Mussolini. Stepping from the plane on his return to England, he waved the printed statement he would later make public. Read the text here, at the Brigham Young University website on British primary documents.
**War and Crises in Europe and Asia: 1937-40**
For an in-depth account of war and aggression in Asia and Europe between 1937 and 1940, open this online book to Chapter 21. Heavy on detail and strategy, and very light on commentary. Follow inline links to maps of the locations mentioned in the text.
I believe it is peace for our time ... Go home and get a nice quiet sleep. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain claimed a diplomatic victory after meeting with Hitler and Mussolini in 1938.
Learn More...
In a secret addendum to the Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on how they would divvy up Eastern Europe.
Learn More...
Holocaust
Manhattan Project
Internment of Japanese-Americans
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Post World War II 1945-1948